Thursday, June 28, 2012

All Good Things Must Come To An End

Monday 6/25/12

The highlight of today was going to hear one of Susan's favorite authors, Ridley Pearson, speak while on a book tour for "The Risk Agent". We drove to the nearby town of Beaverton, which is about 15 min. from the Residence Inn in North Portland. The famous bookstore, Powell's Books, hosted the event and 40 people attended. He went around to every person there, shook their hand and thanked them for coming. It is very unusual for an author to do that. He spent about an hour speaking and personally signing books. We were very lucky to get to see him and even got a photograph with the best selling author of 42 books. One of his books, "Peter and the Starcatchers", co-written with Dave Barry, has been turned into a play and is currently on Broadway. The Flanagan Drama group (including Susan and daughter Lisa) saw the play in NYC at the end of May and loved it. Ridley is a fascinating energetic speaker and has had a very interesting life.

Tuesday 6/26/12

We drove back to Seattle with no detours today. It rained off and on for the drive so this was a good day not to be outside. After checking into the Hilton Bellevue, we returned to the Sea Star in downtown Bellevue and enjoyed a delicious lunch. Susan ordered Sockeye salmon and Mary had Steelhead salmon. Both were heavenly. We REALLY like the Sea Star restaurant! Many thumbs up for excellent food and outstanding service.

Wednesday 6/27/12 Travel Day Home

Mt. Rainier on a rare clear day

We splurged and ordered a Town Car service to the airport. We appreciated the door to door service during rush hour traffic. We very reluctantly checked our bags at the Delta counter and boarded our B767 to Atlanta, with the final destination of Daytona Beach. The weather was as perfect as it could be for flying. The skies were crystal clear which made for amazing views of the mountain ranges. On take off from SeaTac Airport, we could see six mountain peaks at once - all were covered in snow! What an ending to our incredible journey though the Pacific Northwest.